About
I was born and raised in Mechanicsville, Virginia just outside of Richmond. Throughout my upbringing, I initially considered careers in architecture, computer science, and engineering, but ultimately found my passion for film studies—and the arts, in general—towards the latter half of my high school years. At Virginia Tech, I made every effort to cultivate my various filmmaking, writing, and overall collaborative skills, in order to transform this passion into a foreseeable career. These cherished years—in particular, participating in two campus film competitions—allowed me to discover my love for working within deadlines. In this respect, I've garnered considerable experience producing creative content with limited resources, managing small teams in an effort to produce quality work. My films have screened across the nation and several areas abroad, collecting many awards and nominations along the way. In August 2018, my short film Clock-Boy (2017) received distribution via Amazon Prime Video as a Top 25 selection from projects produced for the CampusMovieFest 2017-2018 National Tour.
I currently serve as Assistant Building Manager at the Moss Arts Center in Blacksburg, Virginia where I'm privileged to a kaleidoscope of creativity on a daily basis, including performing arts, visual arts, and immersive sound technologies. In my spare time, I enjoy watching and studying films, having amassed an extensive catalog of home video releases including labels such as The Criterion Collection, Arrow, and Kino, in addition to less prolific companies. Furthermore, I'm an avid fan of classic rock, particularly the music and history behind The Beach Boys, Def Leppard, Midnight Oil, David Bowie, and Bruce Springsteen, among other artists. Regarding my own output, I frequently produce film content via either continuing or newly formed collaborations with many talented students within our Theatre & Cinema Department. Recently, I've also been working on various critical essays, and creative writing pieces—new endeavors, as well as expansions of undergraduate assignments—in hopes of publishing a few documents in the near future. Lastly, I'm taking the necessary steps to pursue an M.F.A. in Creative Producing, aiming for an August, 2020 enrollment.
What's my personal approach? At the most fundamental level, I believe the story comes first. There's always an intellectual and emotional synthesis awaiting realization through the telling of any story. Additionally, I believe it's important to continually examine past work, in an effort to make each film a little better than the last, which is why I try to showcase my entire catalog. The process of creating something weighs just as heavily into my methods as the final product itself, a philosophy which enables me to foster an environment of mutual respect within any of my collaborative efforts. I'm also a firm believer that in order to create respectable material, one must immerse themselves into the history of the medium. There were plenty of astounding filmmakers in the world 50, 75, even 100 years ago, and there's obviously more today. Nevertheless, compared to many other forms of visual and performative art, cinema has a relatively small track record. Thanks to film preservation organizations, the home video market, and the rise of streaming services, one can easily view, and study a sizable amount of international work spanning most of the medium's existence. Although there's plenty of information I have yet to discover, and many techniques outside of my immediate experience, I believe people thrive when they make the effort to continually expose themselves to the unknown. Further analysis often yields satisfying results. I strive to apply this approach to my professional work, in addition to my personal life.
Thanks for visiting my website. Feel free to contact me here if you'd like to discuss a project. Or, take a look at my resume or CV for a full compendium of my achievements.
